What is Geo Fencing?

Geofencing marketing is an incredibly powerful marketing tactic with an impressive ROI. Learn how to use it properly and grow your business fast.

Are you familiar with geofencing marketing? If not, you're missing out a great way to drive traffic to your business.Small to medium-sized businesses face stiff competition in the marketplace. So it's crucial that you use every means possible to get customers to your door. Enter: Geofencing, the latest cutting edge marketing technique that can add as much a 20% increase in conversion when adding location data to their ad data.

What is Geofencing Marketing?

In simple terms, geofencing marketing is a location-based tool that helps you target customers that are geographically near your business, or near an area you wish to target. This means they may be driving by or are shopping in the same mall where your business is located. Or that they may be located in a geographic 'fence' that you think would be a gold mine if only you could be found there.

How Can I Implement It?

There are a few different ways you can implement geo fencing technology. The method you choose will depend on a variety of different factors, including your marketing budget and size of your business. Here are a few ways to get started:

Web Ads

Web ads are an easy way to get started with geofencing. When you buy web ads through Google, or another party, these ads will display to consumers when they enter your pre-set geofencing area.

For example, when a customer Googles information on another business in your area, they'll see an ad for your current promotion. Pretty cool, huh? This could well persuade them to visit you instead, since you're nearby and offering them a deal.

Social Media Ads

Social media ads work very similarly to web ads. If a customer is browsing Facebook, Instagram, or any other social media site your business uses, they'll see an advertisement for your business.

Text Messages

If your business runs promotions via text message, take this technology a step further by incorporating geofencing into your strategy. As customers enter your geographic area, they'll get a text message alert of any sales or promotions you're currently running.

You can also simply send them an alert that says they're nearby, and that you hope to see them soon. This is one of the most direct ways to use geofencing, and you typically see huge ROI.

App Engagement

If you're a larger business with its own app, this is a great opportunity to deliver notifications once a customer enters the range of your store. So long as they've downloaded your app (and have notifications enabled) they'll receive an alert to sales or promotions you're currently running. Like a text message, this is an easy and direct way to ensure your customers will see that they're near you.

3rd Party App Engagement

Don't be concerned if you're business can't afford to develop its own app quite yet. You can also rely on third-party app engagement. There are tons of different coupon and money-saving apps out there. Do some research to find which ones are the most popular in your area, and they'll do most of the work for you. Customers using these apps can receive messages and notifications once they're near your business. However, be wary that customers will often receive multiple deals and notifications from other businesses they're close to as well, so there is more competition for you.

What Are the Benefits?

There's a long list of benefits to geofencing marketing, but here are a few highlights that might convince you:

1. It Makes Your Messaging More Timely

You might spend thousands of dollars on advertising online or in print, but is this actually getting customers off the couch and in your store? Geofencing helps you meet them halfway by sending them advertisements when they're already out the door.

Think about it, you might be offering a sale that's appealing to your customers, but after they see the initial ad it's out of sight and out of mind. If they see it when they're already out and near their store, they're much more likely to stop in and take advantage.

2. It's More Effective

Sure, it's easy to target Facebook or other paid social media ads to specific customers, but geofencing helps you target an even more specific group.

Geofencing helps you reach a small sample of the population that's most likely to take action and make a purchase at your business. They already know about you and they're geographically close. Reminding them of a sale or special at the right time will likely put more money in your pocket.

3. Better Data to Help Measure ROI

Measuring ROI with geo fencing is easy, mainly because it gives you plenty of solid data points to work from. You'll know exactly when your customers are out and about and how often each customer comes near your store.

You'll also have solid insight into exactly what deals they respond to the most. This means you can create targeted ads that offer customers what they want exactly when they want it.

Which Brands Are Setting Good Examples?

Geofencing is new. And is mainly being used in the US by large, global brands. SMEs are yet to get across this technology, so yours could be ahead of the bell curve if you run with it.

Top U.S. brands such as Whole Foods and Sephora both use the technology effectively. Sephora, for example, uses it's branded app to send notifications to shoppers when they near a store. These notifications can include sale announcements or even notifications of gift card balances.

Whole Foods uses a similar model by targeting everyone in a specific area with web ads on daily specials or sales they might be having. While these are large, billion-dollar brands, geo fencing can be implemented on a small-business budget as well. All you need is a good team to get you set up with the right tools.

Which sounds like a pretty perfect segue for you to pick up the phone and call SEO North Sydney...

Ready to Get Started?

Have you figured out that your business needs geofencing marketing? If so, it's time to get started. The key to getting the most out of your geofencing marketing strategy is finding a good a team on your side that understands exactly how to make your geofencing technology succeed.

Our team at SEO North Sydney can do all that and more for your business. Read more about our SEO and marketing services, and don't hesitate to reach out to learn exactly how we can help your business succeed.

Author

Brian M Logan is an on-line marketing, SEO and copywriting expert with over 15 years' experience in the web and over 20 years' experience with the written word.

This blog is primarily designed for entrepreneurs and business owners, with a specific focus on helping Small Businesses and SMEs gain greater market share via online search strategies. Without breaking the bank.

As a screenwriter and novelist repped out of Hollywood by one of the world's 'Big 3' agencies, Brian also adds the occasional creative writing sample to this blog (when the mood strikes him), by way of a change of pace.